A Timid Smile
by MelancholyMadness
Summary: Somtimes it just takes a smile to transform a monster into a boy who just wants a friend.


1A Timid Smile

AN I've wanted to write a GaaraxOC friendship fic for a long time and, so feel it is! I'm sorry if it sucks because I wrote it late at night.

Disclaimer: I DO NOT AND WILL NOT EVER OWN NARUTO OR ANY OF THE CHARACTERS! THIS FIC CAN BE USED TO, INSTEAD PROMOTE NARUTO!

Kaya Satoko walked nervously toward the playground, shyly glancing around at all of the other children.

There were a few playing a quick game of soccer, all of them laughing as they tried to chase the ball, which a young boy with tan hair had just kicked out of bounds. It seemed like they were having a race for it, and that appeared to be more fun than the game itself.

There was another clump of children who were playing tag, who also looked as if they too had gotten sidetracked from the game itself and were much more interested in a hole that someone had tripped it.

The last group of children were all girls and were giggling and pointing at a boy with brown shaggy hair who was currently walking over to look at the ever so amusing hole in the ground.

Kaya stood silently at the edge of the playground for a second more before she decided to instead sit on the lone swing set that sat far away from the others. It was not until she was halfway there that she realized that there was a boy about her age already sitting there.

She stopped walking.

The boy was so pale that he looked unhealthy and had vermillion spiked hair. His pastel sea green eyes were very thickly outlined in black and seemed to be fixated on his shoes. He wore a beige poncho and brown pants with bandages covering his ankles. In his left arm he held a teddy bear.

Kaya decided that approaching one boy would be much easier than working up the courage to talk to any of the groups of people, so she continued to walk toward the lone swing set.

Before she could take another three steps, she heard footfalls running up behind her.

Surprised, she spun around to come face to face with three of the girls who were moments ago squealing over the boy with the shaggy hair.  
The first one wore a pink dress that hung loosely off her tanned and rather boney shoulders. She had dark blond hair that fell in waves down to her mid back and brown eyes.

The second one had a tan kimono style shirt with brown flowers and tan cargo pants with bandages up her legs. She was pale and had a black pixie cut and light brown eyes.

The third had a black t-shirt and navy sweat pants that went to the middle of her calf. Her blond hair was in a ponytail, with a single strand in her face. Her eyes were grey.

"You don't wanna go over there." the girl with ponytail said warningly, glancing toward the swings.

Kaya raised an eyebrow.

"That's Sabaku No Gaara! He's creepy!" the one in the pink dress explained. "My mom said that he's some kind of demon and that he'll kill you without even blinking!"

"He scares me." the girl with the pixie cut said quietly.

"He doesn't look scary to me." Kaya said quietly, looking down, deciding that her shoes were suddenly very interesting.

The girl with the ponytail gasped.

"Trust me, he's really bad! He controls the sand without even thinking! How are you supposed to trust someone like that!" Ponytail said, "If you want to get yourself killed, you can go over there with that thing."

"You could come play with us." the girl with the pixie cut said quietly, "My name's Sachiku."

"I'm Kiku!" the pink dress girl perked.

"And I'm Ami." the ponytailed one said proudly.

Kaya stopped and didn't say anything for a moment.

These girls hadn't said one thing about 'Sabaku No Gaara' that had happened to them, personally. They just blurted out things about what other people thought or had happened to them. She doubted that they had ever even talked to him at all.

Kaya wasn't actually from Sunagakure at all. She lived in Takigakure, the Village Hidden in the Waterfall. She was only visiting Suna because of a mission that her parents had, but what she had been picking up on was that most people must felt this way about this so called 'Sabaku No Gaara'. He didn't look like an evil person. She thought that he looked lonely all by himself.

Kaya turned and began walking toward him, not caring at all that he was a supposed killer.  
"What are you doing! Don't go over there! He's a freak! Even his family hate him! The Kazekage himself has been trying to kill him!" Ami said in protest.

"I don't care." Kaya muttered as she continued to approach him. Her comments only made her want to go sit by the swings even more.

As she began to draw closer, Gaara looked up in question. When he realized that she wasn't running away and was fully aware that he was also sitting there, his eyes widened and his brow line furrowed.

Kaya sat down on the swing next to him and began awkwardly swinging, her feet not reaching the ground, her cropped caramel hair blowing out of her face.

She slowed down and turned to Gaara who was openly staring at her in wonder and confusion.

"Hi." she said almost to quietly to hear, glancing up at his face. "My name's Kaya. What's yours?" she asked, even though she knew the answer. Her mom said that it was bad manners to not assume things about others, even if it is just a name.

His brows drew even closer together in confusion.

"Gaara." he answered in a mutter that she almost didn't catch. He looked away from her, as if expecting that now that she knew who he was, she would run away.

She didn't, and this seemed to confuse him even more.

"Aren't you going to run away?" he asked even quieter, as if afraid to hear the answer.

She smiled timidly. "Nope! If you don't mind, I'm gonna sit right here and swing." She said gaining a bit more courage.

"But everyone else ran." Gaara mumbled.

She got up and peered down at him with her white blue eyes, "But I'm not everyone else," she pointed out with a smile."Now am I?" she said and his mouth twitched into a shaky and very timid smile.

Whoever this Sabaku No Gaara was, she didn't think he was evil, just a shy boy with vermillion spiked hair and sea green eyes that just needed a friend who didn't judge him by what others had said. He needed someone brave enough to walk over and say 'hi'.

Kaya thought that it was very funny that the one to do it was a girl who was to shy to talk to the people playing tag or soccer or even the ones who were ogling over a boy. All it took was a smile and a 'hello' to turn the monster into a boy who just wants a friend.


End file.
